What is this social networking? How are you supposed to interact socially with people on the internet to have fun and create a profit? Is it just a waste of time? How can you use it to sell a product or service?

Think about this. You are searching the internet for the latest and greatest toys to keep your dog occupied. Fido likes to chew everything, so you need a good, durable toy. You are not looking for a cheap plastic or flimsy rubber thing he will have chewed apart in a matter of minutes. You decide to do a search on the internet. You type in the words durable dog toy. As you begin visiting the results, you find site after site that has images of dog toys and descriptions. You can’t, however, really tell from the photos and descriptions how well made these toys are. It’s been a pretty boring search and not real informative so far.

You are just about to give up and make yet another trip to the pet store to try and find a toy that will be a challenge for Fido to destroy. This is when you come across another site. This site is a blog. Each post is accompanied by photos of the author actually playing with his dogs and the toys. At the bottom of a few of the posts, some people have commented asking specific questions. The blog author (AKA toy distributor) has actually answered them. You are elated. You read a comment that asks about dogs destroying toys and what is best for this situation. The author explains about a certain line of toys that is very hard for them to destroy, but is lightweight enough for them to play. You’ve got the information you have been looking for! This blogger is now your friend. You like him because he has solved your problem before you even asked the question.

This is a prime example of social networking for fun and profit. Any place on the internet where you can interact one on one with your customers is social networking. Many people think the term only refers to sites where people post profiles and chat with each other. Those types of sites are included but not all inclusive.

People buy from people they know, like and trust. In order for you to create that know, like and trust with potential customers, you must be able to interact with them on a personal level. In the example of the blogger selling dog toys, the author has posted personal photos of himself and his dogs actually using the toys. You can see from the photos of them playing that they toys aren’t ripped to shreds and dogs appear to really like them. You can see from the date and time on the questions and answers in the comments that he answers questions in a timely manner. Most of all, you like this guy. The more posts you read, the more you realize that he’s not just some corporation behind a website. He is a real person and you will get personal service when it comes to working with him.

This is the type of relationship you want to have with your potential customers. Blogging is just one way to accomplish this. Think of ways you can interact with your customers in real time. That is an important key to this puzzle – real time. Having your customers fill out a contact form and you will get back to them is not interacting. In the blog example, you are able to read past questions and see the answers. This is much better than an FAQ page on a site. You can see how the author interacts with his potential customers. This tells a lot about a person.

In conclusion, find a way to interact socially with your customers and you will be well on your way to social networking for fun and profit.

I turned 42 on May 25. I got the best present ever - my boy (who is in a residential therapeutic facility) got to come home on a day pass. It was great!! He was able to get a pass last weekend and is home now until Sunday.

But…that’s not the reason I’ve been away from my blogs.

As you may know, I’m a life & career coach. Everyone needs a coach - even life and career coaches. I’ve been working with my career coach. My life was too “busy” with a lot going on but not a lot accomplished. I’m good at everything I do and I like everything I do. However, I eventually need to work toward one career. In a few years my Vitamark business will be able to sustain us income wise, however, I need something fulfilling to do in the meantime and beyond. I’ve narrowed it down to Virtual Assistant and Life/Career Coach. I love working with others and when I hear that the people I’m helping are living a better life because of the help I’ve given them, it makes me feel great!!

In honoring my decision to help others, I’ve greatly discounted the cost of my “You Can Redesign Your Life” 3 week course for my blog readers. Here’s what you need to do:

Visit YouCanRedesignYourLife.com to find out about it.

Come back here and click here to pay $49 instead of the regular$169 for the course. (I may take this offer away at any time so grab it now if you want it)

Many of last year’s participants have implemented what they learned and are now living more fulfilled lives than ever before.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life!! What will you do with it?

I’ve decided to run the course again. Visit here to check it out. If you or someone you know can benefit from it, please send them here.
Have a wonderful day!!

Roxanne

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan not only wants to shut down YTB, but wants to make sure the owners of YTB are NEVER involved in network marketing again.  As it should be.

Hopefully this will be (another) huge wake up call to all of these MLMs that are driven by the recruit, recruit, recruit model.  Everyone can take a look at their own business model and see if they have sales to people other than reps.    We’ve been telling people for years that business models drive the behavior in the field.  YTBs business model was recruit, recruit, recruit.  The problem is that travel was NEVER sold to anyone other than reps.  These reps did not have travel businesses, they had a pyramid scheme.   The majority of reps in YTB didn’t even make enough money to pay for their website.

Many other MLMs will follow and fall like dominoes unless they change their business model.  If your MLM does the whole “you can get it cheaper if you sign up as a rep” thing, you could be in danger.  If you don’t have anyone paying retail for your products then you are in danger of having your MLM shut down.

These lawsuite are not new.  I had someone tell me once “YTB can’t be a pyramid scheme becaue it’s publicly traded”.  That’s BS.

Bottom line - if you are in YTB or any other company that only sells products to other reps, you need to get out NOW!!!

Go read my free eBook and learn how to evaluate YOUR company.   These poor YTB reps thought they were safe.  The few that were making money THOUGHT they were building residual income for life.  They THOUGHT this company would be around to pay their children’s children.  However, they didn’t listen to anyone who tried to caution them that they are in a pyramid scheme.  They didn’t want to hear that the company they chose to join is illegal.

The attorney general can’t possibly get to all of these companies today, but they will get them eventually.  Do you really want to build with one in the meantime?

YOU Deserve Success!!

Roxanne

The only way I see twitter working is if someone literally spends hours a day on there.  So I’m tweeting and who is reading it?  Only the people who happen to be online when I tweet (or have a tweet feed tool on their computer) and the people looking for new people to follow.  I asked myself “is the time I spend on twitter worth the benefit I get from it?”  The answer I came up with is a resounding NO.

Now, I’m sure some will disagree with me, but my time is worth more than that.  I’ve neglected my blog to sit on twitter.  I was looking for intelligent conversations I could join in on, but what I saw was not that.  Maybe I was just on at the wrong time of day, but I do NOT have all day to waste sitting on twitter trying to find a good conversation that I can add to.

I was looking to see what the successful people on the internet are doing.  Guess what?  Most of them are NOT TWEETING.  So I asked myself “Do I want to do what successful people do or do what unsuccessful people do?”  The answer was do what successful people do.  The successful people that I’m following do NOT tweet every day.  They tweet occasionally.

So…this is why I am no longer going to be watching twitter for great conversations that I can join in on.  I went out and found a couple of online groups of successful people who are running their own online businesses and making money.  I choose to spend my time with these groups.  I choose to read books and listen to great audios instead of doing the twitter thing.

Do what the successful people do and you, too, will find success.

Roxanne Green

It’s official. I’m in love with a man other than my husband.

Jeff Johnson of Underground Training Lab is awesome!! I have used Jeff’s free SEO blog software for quite a while now and always point anyone wanting a wordpress blog hosted on their own site to Jeff’s free software. What I didn’t realize is that Jeff has some amazing free content that most others would charge for. He has a TON of free content at Underground Training Lab and has some great tutorial videos on youtube.

When Jeff Johnson promotes something as an affiliate, you know it’s a good deal. He doesn’t promote just anything that comes along like some of the internet marketers out there. He doesn’t spam his list and he doesn’t promote EVERY joint venture he’s approached with. It has to be special for Jeff to send it to his list. If I know there’s a launch of a product that I like, I wait for Jeff’s links. I respect people who treat their lists like gold. Jeff does that. I can’t wait to meet him in person some day at one of his seminars.

If you haven’t checked out Jeff’s sites yet, visit the links above and get some free content. Sign up for his lists. You won’t get spammed and you will only get great content. Jeff’s a class act.

YOU Deserve Success!!

Roxanne

Write for your readers. It doesn’t matter whether you are writing an article or a blog post or any piece on the internet. If you are writing for your readers, latent semantic indexing is a moot point. Search engine optimization is a moot point. You will get indexed in the search engines and attract new readers to your blog or articles. You will have the proper key words if you are truly writing about your topic of choice. LSI is making sure you have the right keywords for the right topic. If you are writing for your readers, those keywords will be in there anyway. Search engines will like you and your readers will be happy.

Seth Godin’s post today talks about the difference between writing for strangers and friends. He ends his post with:

Guaranteed: if you sell a friend the way you sell a stranger, you’ve made neither a sale or a friend.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. However, think about it this way - if you always write for friends, you will turn strangers into friends. I can’t count the number of friends I’ve made from my blogging. Many of them have become customers and/or business partners.

Bottom line - don’t write for strangers or the search engines, write for your readers/friends.

YOU Deserve Success!!
Roxanne

Roxanne

Think about how many people are promoting the same or similar things as you are.  You need to find a way to make yourself shine above all the rest of them.

Here’s a scenerio for you:

I’m looking to work from home and I’ve heard that Widgets R Us is a great MLM company.  They pay great and have great products.  I’ve researched the owners of the company and they are upstanding people who have a proven track record as distributors.  I’ve read teh policies & procedures and there are no “gotcha’s” in there.  The’ve been in business for a few years so they aren’t “ground floor” but not so long that they are a household name.  I’ve googled them and they don’t have a ton of bad press floating around about them.

So, I’ve done the research on the company itself and now I’m looking for a rep to join.  I ask around and do some searches on the internet.  I find you and a few others.

What makes you stand out? Why should I join you instead of the others? What can you bring to the table that others can’t (or don’t)?

Here’s where branding yourself comes in. People want to join a leader. What do you do to be that leader? How do you stand out from the crowd? Is there some extra support that you can provide? Maybe you’re really good at blogging or have really good phone skills. Maybe you took a class or course and can now share your knowledge with others. If you haven’t taken any classes or courses yet - take one and teach others what you learn. The cost of most courses will be easily recovered (if it’s a good course) and over time you will be able to use that knowledge to build your business.

**SHAMELESS PLUG**
Consider taking my blogging course at http://BlogYourWayToProfits.com
**END SHAMELESS PLUG**

Brand yourself - not your company!!

YOU Deserve Success!!

Roxanne

If you have a business and you are marketing that business online, your list is your greatest asset.  I won’t go into the mechanics of it here, but the best way to build a list is to give away a free report or other free content related to your niche.  For example, if you are selling widgets, you would give away a free report titled something like “7 Easy Ways to Use a Widget”.  The people who give you their name and email address in exchange for the report become your list.

Everyone knows that people buy from people they know, like and trust.  The best way to build trust with your list is to treat them with respect.  Just because these people have signed up for free information from you does not mean that they want you to constantly spam them with every joint venture you get pitched on.  It does not mean that they want you to constantly send them emails promoting your widgets.

Quite a while ago I signed up for list building information from a well known list building trainer.  I decided to try one of his membership sites for a month and see if I got good content or not.  Now, mind you, this guy says he can teach me to build a list of targeted people who want what I have and will be buying my products/services and making me money.   I thought he may have some content that I could learn as an addition to what I teach already.

After a month I decided not to renew my membership because the content was all geared toward basic, beginner list building and there was no real “meat” to the content.  The best idea he had was to joint venture with other people who already have a list.  They send your offer to their list and you send their offer to your list.

Now, I can see where that would work IF I were selective about my JV partners.  But, obviously, being selective about your JV partners doesn’t work because this “guru” started pitching me 2-3 times per DAY with the “next greatest deal”.   Not 2-3 times a month or even 2-3 times a week, but 2-3 times a DAY!!  He put out an offer to his membership students that he would promote their products/services to his list.  He was apparently bombarded with these JV offers that he promised to promote because the spam floodgates opened wide.

I had a terrible time trying to remove myself from his list because when I purchased month one, I got put into his customer list and his member list and his main list.   At one point, about 2 weeks in, I was added to another list because he offered a trial to a more advanced training (that was not more advanced).  When I canceled month one, I canceled the advanced training trial.  I did not, however, opt out of all 6 or 7 email lists that I now ended up in because there was not global remove or remove from all lists option.  This self proclaimed guru has no idea how to segment is list and offer a global remove option.  SAD.  What a fiasco that turned out to be!  Now I have a terrible view of this trainer and will never opt in to any of his info again for fear of being pitched constantly.  That is NOT the way to treat your list.

If you are going to build a list, you MUST treat that list with respect.  Just because someone has signed up for your free content does NOT mean that they know, like and trust you.  You have to build that with them.  Give them great free information and earn their trust by not pitching them.  You can occasionally tell them about a special you are running on your widgets or give them free content with a link at the bottom to your widgets, but do NOT email them solely for the purpose of selling them your widgets.  Just because they purchased something from you, it does not give you the right to spam them with all kinds of deals.

If you decide to do a joint venture or two, make sure that it is something your list will be interested in.  Someone who signed up to get free golfing information, for example, is not going to want to buy a book of knitting patterns.  They may, however, be interested in buying an ebook that explains how to pick the best clubs for their skill level.   You could offer this at the bottom of your free tips.  If they want it, they can click the link.

Be kind to your list!!

YOU Deserve Success!!

Roxanne Green